NOTE: I wrote this timeline, but it existed on a different sight before I brought it here. Thus, the format is a bit different, but I feel it is still readable and I hope you enjoy a twist of history. So without further adoo:

The Presidency of James Middleton Cox (1921-1925)

Event Date: 11-2-1920Event Description: Democratic presidential nominee Governor James M. Cox of Ohio defeats Senator Warren G. Harding, also of the Buckeye State, in the U.S. presidential election. Despite some Democratic fatigue, the lack luster Harding campaign was rocked by several of his mistresses breaking their silence (even a paid silence) and declaring that they indeed were involved with the Ohio Senator. The election is a close one, and Harding actually wins the popular vote.

Event Date: 3-4-1921Event Description: James Middleton Cox is sworn in as the 29th President of the United States. He promises in his Inaugural address he declares, "We must continue to make the world safe for democracy." Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 39-year old former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, is Vice-President. President Woodrow Wilson retires to S Street in Washington, D.C., where he basks in the glory of one last victory: A Cox Presidency.

Event Date: 5-29-1921Event Description: Chief Justice Edward Douglass White dies in office peacefully after a stroke a few days earlier. President Cox, though wanting to appoint former President Woodrow Wilson, is persuaded by Secretary of State Cordell Hull to choose Wilson's second-in-command, Thomas Riley Marshall, to be the new Chief Justice. "Marshall and Lodge were friends in the Senate," Hull tells Cox, "But Lodge and Wilson are sworn enemies. Marshall will pass without a fight; Wilson's nomination will lead to gridlock." Cox nominates Marshall, who is easily confirmed to be the 10th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Event Date: 7-2-1921Event Description: Senator Joseph Frelinghuysen of New Jersey (a Republican who greatly respects President Cox) hands the President a note in the Oval Office. It reads, "German high command willing to offer full peace to the Government of the United States." "Not without the league," calmly says President Cox, and he leaves the room.

Event Date: 7-4-1921Event Description: On Independence Day, President Cox addresses the nation on the first ever Presidential radio broadcast. Few hear it, but many of those who do (mostly wealthy and conservative Republicans) are appalled by the address. "The world can only be made safe for Democracy if the world can be made safe from war," Cox tells the nation, "And the only way this can be achieved is by the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and American entry into the League of Nations." Cox will not make peace without the league. Former President Wilson smiles as he listens to the address. "Give 'em hell Jimmy!" he thinks in his academic mind.

Event Date: 7-12-1921Event Description: Republican leader and Dean of the U.S. Senate Henry Cabot Lodge states that the GOP dominated Senate will, "Never give into the internationalist President," and that the Senate will once again defeat the league and the treaty.

Event Date: 8-4-1921Event Description: The Senate once again votes down the Treaty of Versailles. The vote is 68-38. President Cox has been defeated, but peace must still be made.

Event Date: 8-21-1921Event Description: Over 5,000 people, World War I veterans, widows, mothers, and paramedics, march on Washington, D.C. "We just want a fair peace," pleads World War I veteran Jim Pendergrast, the son of a Kansas City mob boss, Tom Pendergrast, "Just give the world that, and my buds can all come home." Americans are becoming anxious for peace, but President Cox continues to demand a league.

Event Date: 8-24-1921Event Description: The mass rally grows violent as Socialists led by well known labor agitator and 1916 Socialist Presidential nominee Allan Louis Benson begin to pester the Washington Police with insults and stone throwing. The police, already nervous due to the number of people, begin to fire on the crowd. Over 15 people are killed including Benson, leading African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune, and a woman simply caught in the line of fire, personal secretary to Vice-President Franklin Roosevelt Missy LeHand.

Event Date: 8-30-1921Event Description: President Cox finally answers the nation on what has been called "The August Blood Harvest." "I have formally condemned police action on the protesters," Cox tells reporters at a Rose Garden press conference, "And have called for the resignation of Commissioner Ramsey of the Metropolitan Police. While I know that the fight has been brutal, I stand by the League of Nations and by the Treaty. We must have them for a lasting peace." In response to this speech, Senator Albert Cummins of Iowa told the Washington Times, "Cox is more Iowa stubborn than I am!"

Event Date: 9-4-1921Event Description: A letter discovered on the corpse of Missy LeHand is made public. The letter read mostly as a love letter between Vice-President Roosevelt and his secretary. The secret of Roosevelt's affair becomes public news as it is released by the Washington Evening Post.

Event Date: 9-6-1921Event Description: Vice-President Roosevelt finally responds to the allegations of an extramarital affair. Roosevelt declares in a brief statement from his home at Hyde Park, "I wish to tell the press and the government that my personal life is no one's damned business." To her credit, the Second Lady of the Land Eleanor Roosevelt has kept her head during the last few days. She herself has made quite a positive effect on Washington, D.C., working in the slums with poor immigrant and African-American, teaching them how to read and write. "Let the chips fall where they may," Eleanor informs the press, "I stand, and shall continue to stand, by and with my husband."

Event Date: 9-11-1921Event Description: President Cox, finally bowing to reality, contacts the German High Command and peace is finally made ending the great World War I. With the economy tanking under a post-war recession and Vice-President Roosevelt under fire for an extramarital affair, Cox is given a much needed boost in popularity.

Event Date: 9-14-1921Event Description: Vice-President Roosevelt is summoned to the Senate chamber by Republican leaders Henry Cabot Lodge and Charles Curtis. They tell him that he can expect to be put under a federal investigation into his personal life. "You can't do this!" Roosevelt declares, "You can not look into my personal life like this." "We hold all the cards," Curtis tells the young Veep.

Event Date: 9-25-1921Event Description: Cincinnati attorney Robert Alfonso Taft, the 39-year old son of former President William H. Taft, is appointed by Attorney General Bennett Clark to be the Special Investigator into Vice-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "seamy affairs" as Senator Curtis has declared. The investigation shall go on for 10-months, and destroy a promising political career.

Event Date: 6-30-1922Event Description: Special Investigator Robert Taft releases the finding of his investigations to the U.S. Senate. What he has discovered about Vice-President Roosevelt's personal affairs and dealings were, as he stated to the Senate, "Contrary to the Constitution and to common decency." Among his charges is one that has persisted since 1920: Perjury in relation to his investigation of a homosexual ring at the Newport, Rhode Island, Naval Station. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR had approved the use of men "uncover and route out" homosexuals in the army. Young sailors were instructed by Roosevelt to use brutality and "any means possible" to discover homosexuals in the navy. Roosevelt in 1920 lied before a Naval Court of Inquiry that he and never ordered any such motives. "To protect the Constitution!" Taft booms before the Senate Chamber, "I advise the immediate impeachment of Vice-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for perjury and high crimes against our Constitution"

Event Date: 7-1-1922Event Description: Senate hearings on Vice-President Roosevelt's perjury before a Naval Inquiry begin under the watchful eye of Senator Charles Curtis. Throughout the summer the nation will be spellbound by the charges against the Vice-President.

« Last Edit: September 21, 2007, 09:43:55 pm by PBrunsel »

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 7-25-1922Event Description: Former Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels testifies as the "Star Witness" before the Curtis Commission. He testifies for over 14-hours, speaking in a monotone, and lays down the most damning evidence against Roosevelt including letters and telegraphs to young sailors. These are nicknamed by the press as "The Smoking Guns" and it now appears likely that Franklin D. Roosevelt will become the first Vice-President removed from office by impeachment.

Event Date: 8-9-1922Event Description: Vice-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, following months of intense prodding into his personal affairs and dealings and a charge of perjury, resigns the Vice-Presidency of the United States. "I have no regrets over what I have done," an embittered Roosevelt tells the press as he leaves his office, "I just want to tell you how much you'll be missing. You won't have Franklin Roosevelt to kick around anymore!"

Event Date: 11-4-1922Event Description: The Democratic Party is given a major black eye in the 1922 Midterm Elections. The Republican Party gains seats in both houses. In the Senate, the Republicans pick up three seats, cementing their lead in that House. In the House of Representatives (following a disastrous showing where even Champ Clark, narrowly reelected in 1920, is thrown from office) is overwhelmingly Republican by a massive margin. President Cox is seen as a complete lame duck, and it is only his first term.

Event Date: 11-5-1922Event Description: Former haberdasher Harry Truman, a World War I veteran and a candidate for Jackson County Judge backed by the Pendergrast Machine, receives the bad news: he has been defeated in the GOP landslide of 1922 by a narrow margin of a little under 100 votes. He has no idea what to do as he now considers himself a complete failure. He goes into Kansas City to go for a walk and forget about his troubles when he stumbles across a club called "The Tin Cap Alley" with a sign proclaiming "Piano Player Needed. See Joe." Truman sees Joe Marciano, the club's Italian owner, and begins his work as the "piano man" at the club. Truman, just trying to find a way to pay the bills, has entered a world that will lead him to fortune and fame he could never have imagined.

Event Date: 6-6-1923Event Description: President Cox, while speaking before a segregated crowd of 10,000 at Alabama State University, becomes the first President since Ulysses Grant to urge integration on Southern soil. "No man, no matter what their skin color, should be denied freedom," Cox orates, "The freedom from fear, the freedom from want, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of religion. These are the four basic freedoms of humanity, and all deserve them." Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, an avowed racist, declares from the steps of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, "Cox is selling out to our nation's inferior citizens, and we Southern Democrats must not stand for this! That is why I today declare my candidacy for the 1924 Democratic Presidential nomination!"

Event Date: 8-2-1923Event Description: Former Senator Warren G. Harding is elected Mayor of Marion, Ohio, in a special election due to the death of Mayor John Franks. The former presidential candidate joked about the, “Ridiculous notion I could be president. Imagine such a fool as I in the White House!” He will serve as editor of his newspaper The Marion Star and as Mayor of Marion, Ohio until his death in March 1937.

Event Date: 11-3-1923Event Description: The overwhelming GOP majorities in Congress elect their leaders. In the Senate, Charles Curtis, the man who led to the downfall of Vice-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is easily elected over Henry Cabot Lodge to be the position of Senate Majority Leader. The Speaker of the House is the bow tie and tweed suit wearing arch-conservative Frederick H. Gillett of Ohio. Senate Minority Leader Joseph T. Robinson of Kentucky declares that he will fight for President Cox at all times, but against such overwhelming odds, it looks as if the GOP his won for now.

Event Date: 6-20-1924Event Description: The Republican National Convention convenes in Cleveland, Ohio, and nominates on their first ballot Herbert Clark Hoover, the man whom many believe saved Europe, Asia, and the United States itself from starvation during and after World War I. Hoover, a boring speaker by his own acknowledgement, is paired with 69-year old Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin for Vice-President. Hoover-LaFollette is seen as quite a strong ticket against the slightly bumbling, yet very well-meaning and idealistic, President Cox.

Event Date: 8-4-1924Event Description: The Democratic National Convention begins in Madison Square Garden, New York City. President James M. Cox, an incumbent, is expected to be renominated easily, but with the resignation of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he needs a new running-mate. Cox faces strong opposition of the first ballot from former President Wilson's son-in-law William G. McAdoo and Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, but wins renomination on the first ballot. The choice for Vice-President is up in the air.

Event Date: 8-5-1924Event Description: President Cox is paired with Maryland Governor Albert Ritchie when on the 8th ballot he overtook the front-runner, New Jersey Governor George Silzer. Cox-Ritchie is expected to be the underdog ticket as the economy continues to run in a post-war recession and Cox's problems with Vice-President Roosevelt's scandal and resignation, Herbert Hoover and Robert LaFollette, the Republican Ticket, are expected to win a fairly close, yet substantial, victory over the President.

Event Date: 11-6-1924Event Description: Herbert Clark Hoover is elected President of the United States over incumbent President James Middleton Cox. The landslide is nationwide for the GOP. The Senate solidifies itself around the Republicans, as the party picks up four more seats. The Democrats manage to make some gains in the House of Represenatives, but not enough to take the chamber.

Event Date: 3-4-1925Event Description: Herbert Clark Hoover, a native of West Branch, Iowa and current Stanford, California, takes the oath of office from Chief Justice Thomas R. Marshall to become the 30th President of the United States. "Let it be known that the orphaned son of a blacksmith," Hoover declares to the crowd in his Inaugural address, "And an Ohio school teacher can reach the highest office in the land, than let it be known that in America, freedom is still our great equalizer." His reference to Cox brings tears to the outgoing President's eyes. Cox will return to Ohio and serve the rest of his life as the Editor-in-Chief of the Dayton Daily News. In 1966 author Irving Stone would write "James M. Cox: Forgotten Progressive" and the President's place as a progressive minded son of Democracy will be enshrined forever. "Cox," Stone states in his 1966 book, “Was the greatest of the greats."

Event Date: 4-14-1925Event Description: President Hoover introduces to the nation his, "New Deal for the American people." On the surface it seems just like a major progressive change in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt, but Hoover has constructed it to appease all: To appease the protectionists and conservatives the protective tariff rates shall be risen to a tax rate of 60% on more than 3,200 products and materials imported into the U.S., however on the domestic front business and federal property taxes shall be cut 15%. To appease liberals in both parties a new Civil Rights act shall be introduced to Congress outlawing lynching and a new Voting Rights act outlawing poll taxes and the usage of the grandfather clause. To appease the South and West, new revenue from tariff hikes shall be allotted to new roads, canals, bridges, and dams in their regions, especially a way of harnessing power in the Tennessee River Valley and taming the mighty Colorado River.

Event Date: 6-18-1925Event Description: Vice-President Robert LaFollette dies of a cardiovascular disease while at his home in Primrose, Wisconsin. President Hoover calls for a national period of mourning. Progressives all over the country mourn the passing of, "Battlin' Bob."

Event Date: 8-5-1925Event Description: President Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, as authored by Utah Senator Reed Smoot and Oregon Representative Willis C. Hawley, into law. This raises tariffs to levels not seen since the McKinley Tariff of 1890. Hoover, a traditional Republican on the issue of tariffs, was led to believe by his economic advisor Samuel Bush that the best way to combat the ongoing recession was through protection from foreign enemies. This new bill outrages the South but pleases Northern businessmen and manufacturers. Also signed today is the Tax Act of 1925, introduced by Senator Ronald Brewster of Missouri, which cut the federal property taxes of over 2 million Americans and reduced the federal tax code by over 500,000 words.

Event Date: 8-10-1925Event Description: The second stage of the New Deal is initiated as President Hoover (after extensive bargaining and arm twisting with Republican leadership at late night dinner parties and the like)signs the Infrastructure Act of 1925, introduced by Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas and Representative Berkeley L. Bunker of Nevada, which not only begins major infrastructure rebuilding in those states south of the Mason-Dixon line, but begins the building of Boulder Dam, to tame the Colorado River. A new set of bills concerning the Tennessee Valley will be signed by 1926.

Event Date: 7-12-1926Event Description: Harry Truman, after years as a loved piano man and bar tender (of some illegal alcohol, but nothing to get the cop's attention)at "The Tin Cap Alley" in Kansas City, locks up after a long night of jazz music and drink serving at Kansas City's most popular dance club. However, as he leaves to his car to start the long drive back to Independence at the end of a long week, he hears a gun shot and a tortured scream. He runs around the club to a back alley nearby and sees Joe Marciano, his kind boss, in a puddle of blood. "Harry," he gasps, "Call the cops." However, within ten minutes of Harry calling the police and an ambulance, Marciano is dead from the bullet wound. Kansas City Police Chief Nick Nichols apprehends the murderer, a newly arrived pickpocket and petty thief by the name of Charles Arthur Floyd, 22 years of age. "He's just a little Oklahoma punk," Nichols tells Truman, "He's just some pretty boy." Truman learns that the man who hired him after his narrow defeat for Jackson County Judge was killed by Floyd in a botched attempt for a pick pocketing.

Event Date: 7-19-1926Event Description: Truman, after attending Joseph Russo Marciano's funeral, discovers that in Joe's will he has left Truman "The Tin Cap Alley" and $500,000. Truman is suddenly a very wealthy man. He had been living in an old apartment in Kansas City and heading home to Independence, Missouri, on weekends, but now everything changes. As the new owner of one of Kansas City's most popular dance clubs, Truman can now buy a fine home and live closer to his wife Bess and his daughter Margaret.

Event Date: 11-7-1926Event Description: Outraged over new tariffs and Hoover's continuous pushing for Civil Rights reform, the South and West reject the New Deal by throwing out several Republican Senators and Representatives, while several Northeastern states throw out their Senators due to what they call, "Hoover's sell out to Southern interests," due to his increased spending on Southern infrastructure while ignoring Northern states. The House of Representatives is won by the Democratic Party for the first time since 1917.The Senate now stands 51-45 in favor of the Republicans, but many conservative Democrats and Republicans have made unofficial alliances against Hoover's New Deal.

« Last Edit: September 21, 2007, 09:44:22 pm by PBrunsel »

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 1-15-1927Event Description: President Hoover unveils his new policy of Interstate Highways. “For too long our nation has consisted of muddy dirt paths,” Hoover addresses the nation over the radio, “This policy must end. Out nation needs to be united by roads, paved and reliable, for the good of trade and interstate relations.” Conservative Democrats and Republicans will not allow Hoover’s plan to pass easily.

Event Date:1-17-1927Event Description: Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower addresses the Senate Internal Repairs Committee. He tells Committee Chairman Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Junior, that the roads nationwide are indeed terrible. “From 1919 to 1921 I trekked across the fruited plain of America for the Wilson Administration,” Eisenhower, known as Ike, tells the Senator, “And what I found were horrible roads. My tanks and cannons couldn’t even move when they reached Missouri and Arkansas. We need paved roads nation wide. We need them so that our army can move from coast to coast.” The Committee approves of Hoover’s Interstate Highway Plan, and now it is off to the rest of the Senate.

Event Date: 1-21-1927Event Description: The Senate, after three days of debate, passes The Interstate Highway Act of 1927. This ambitious goal of the Hoover Administration is touted as, “The new Transcontinental Railroad”, by Nebraska Senator George Norris. Speaker of the House Finis Garrett of Tennessee, a rock-ribbed state’s rights conservative, vows to fight the Interstate Highway Act. With the Republicans in the minority by only 8 seats, the bill may be salvaged, but convincing enough Democrats to break ranks will be a difficult task.

Event Date: 1-25-1927Event Description: With House Majority Leader John Nance Garner of Texas keeping his Democratic boys in line, the Interstate Highway Act of 1927 fails by a narrow margin in the House of Representatives. Garner, an expected 1928 Democratic candidate for president, vows to continue fighting against, “The socialist policies of Hoover’s government.” The idea of usable, paved roads does not die with the death of the Interstate Highway Act. In Missouri, businessman Harry Truman forms “The Missouri Road Commission” and urges Jackson County Judge James Pendergrast (a man who served under him in World War I and the son of the political boss who supported him in his failed 1922 bid for the office)to begin building paved roads throughout the county. Not only will Jackson County, Missouri, receive paved roads, but so will most counties in the country by the mid-1930s.

Event Date: 2-15-1927Event Description: With the Cristero War waging in Mexico, President Hoover initiates his “Good Neighbor Policy” for Central America. The Quaker president offers military security for the nations of Central America which, “Embrace the ideals of freedom of speech, thought, press, and religion.” These thoroughly American ideals are, as Hoover said, “The measuring stick of who are the friends of Americans and who are her enemies.” Hoover and Mexican Ambassador Dwight Morrow will use these points to work out a peace between the Mexican Government (which shows a disdain towards Catholics) and the Catholic Church of Mexico in April of 1927. Murrow will retire as Ambassador to Mexico after this diplomatic triumph.

Event Date: 2-27-1927Event Description: The Hoover Administration begins a major crack down on the activities of gangsters in America’s major cities. Under the direction of Attorney General Robert Taft, the IRS and Justice Department begin to prosecute such gangsters as Alphonse Capone and Frank Costello for income tax evasion. Such a policy does not attack their true crime of bootlegging, but it does put the men behind bars. Capone’s own trial in 1928 will be one of the first “media circuses” for the new medium of radio. Hoover’s policies effect many speakeasies throughout the country, as they now have lost their suppliers.

Event Date: 3-01-1927Event Description: “Big Tom Taken Down” The Kansas City Star blares! The crack down on bootlegging bosses by the Hoover Administration toppled the illegal alcohol empire of Thomas Pendergrast, the leader of the Jackson County Democratic Party. Harry Truman, the kindly owner of “The Tin Can Alley” dance club, is suddenly out of alcohol. In response to this, he simply decides to follow the rule of Prohibition. “You know I think the laws a ton of bullsh**t,” he riley tells Eddie Jacobsen, his business partner, “But now I don’t have nay choice but to be a boy scout about the law.” Truman also sees the corruption of the Democratic Party of Jackson County and greatly respects the progressive stances of President Herbert Hoover, so in March of 1927 he decides to register as a Republican.

Event Date: 3-15-1927Event Description: President Hoover, “Hoover Plan,” is signed by 12-countries, ranging from France to Japan, reducing naval powers by 1/3rd. Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Secretary of State Charles Dawes declare, “An end to the naval arms race.” Hoover’s attempts at being a worldwide “peace maker” seem to be working.

Event Date: 4-22-1927Event Description: Due to the massive infrastructure reforms of President Hoover, the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 is less disastrous than many in the weather community had expected. President Hoover is able to create a lose alliance between several southern Governors and the federal government long enough to create some refugee camps for the mostly African-American citizens who were displaced by the flooding. Despite reports of poor conditions from several newspaper reporters, the limited wreckage of the flood allows the refugees to leave the camps in a relatively short period of time.

Event Date: 6-11-1927Event Description: President Hoover pins the Distinguished Flying Cross on Charles Lindbergh, a self-made aviator who has flown solo from New York City to Paris, France. “In Charles Lindbergh,” President Hoover proudly declares, “The world sees what American ingenuity and hard work can achieve.”

Event Date: 2-01-1928Event Description: President Hoover’s tax cuts seem to have steadied the economy. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon is able to report to the President hat unemployment has hit its lowest point since 1918 and that business is beginning to show new growth. It seems as if the long post-WWI recession has come to a close. However, the high tariffs of the Hoover Administration still remain a burden to business and Wall Street still reins unwatched by the Hoover government.

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 3-15-1928Event Description: The New York State Democratic Party holds its primaries for state office. The greatest upset of the night is former Vice-President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeating incumbent Senator Royal Copeland for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Running as a fiscal conservative and a “wet”, Roosevelt was able to overcome his marital infidelity scandals and ties to the unpopular Cox Administration. The Republicans, having nominated Ambassador Alanson Houghton, view this seat as an expected pick-up.

Event Date: 6-28-1928Event Description: The man who brought down several of President Hoover’s progressive reforms, House Majority leader John Garner of Texas, is nominated for President of the United States at the Democratic National Convention at Sam Houston Hall, in Houston, Texas. Majority Leader Garner, a Conservative “dry” Southerner, is paired with Representative James Gallivan of Massachusetts, a Catholic “wet” Boston politician. The addition of Representative Gallivan to the ticket was recognized as a concession to Governor Alfred Smith of New York, a “wet” Catholic Democrat who nearly snagged the Presidential nomination from Garner.

Event Date: 7-15-1928Event Description: The Republican Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, nominates President Herbert Hoover for a second term and selects Secretary of State Charles Dawes as his new running-mate. President Hoover attends the convention, the first President to do so, and declares to the convention, “We Republicans offer progress to the United States. We offer civil rights and human dignity to the world. We Republicans look to the future, where poverty will become a thing of the past. We are the party of the future, and in this spirit we shall win this election!” With the economy improving and progressive reforms stirring his base, Hoover looks forward to the fall campaign.

Also to note is the attendance of Harry Truman, a new Republican, at the convention. He simply observes the goings on, but he is contemplating another run for office. As a Republican in Jackson County, however, he knows his chances of election are quite slim. Maybe Mr. Truman should just stick to his dance club.

Event Date: 8-20-1928Event Description: At a campaign rally in Chicago Illinois, President Hoover declares that the issue of civil rights, “Will be the cornerstone of my new administration.” Hoover comes out against the poll tax and declares that he will fight for a new anti-lynching law. “The African-Americans citizens of our nation are entitled to the right of safety,” Hoover declares in what is one of the strongest speeches of the campaign.

Event Date: 11-6-1928Event Description: President Herbert Hoover wins a comfortable victory over House Majority Leader John Nance Garner in the Presidential election. The slight turnaround in the economy as well as new success in fighting organized crime are seen as the main reasons Hoover was able to win reelection. Garner’s talk of “Hoover socialism” seemed to appeal only in the South, where he was expected to win anyway.

The Republican Party picks up five senate seats, thus forming another narrow majority in the Senate. In New York State, former Vice-President Franklin Roosevelt wins the upset of the night over Ambassador Alanson Houghton. Roosevelt’s 2,000 vote victory resurrects him from the political dead. Also that night, the Democratic Party keeps control of the U.S. House of Representatives, but only by 3 seats. Representative Garner will remain on as Majority Leader, since the voters of his district decided to reelect “Cactus Jack” with write-in votes.

That night, President Hoover declares in his victory address, “Good times are what I see ahead, and I know that my vision is not faulty.” Hoover’s second term will see success, but the times are changing, will the Quaker president be able to respond to them?

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 3-04-1929Event Description: President Herbert Clark Hoover is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. “In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.” These optimistic words seem to have merit. Hoover’s economic policies seem to have both the rich and poor happy. The rich are enjoying an economic expansion, the likes that had not been experienced since before World War I. The poor in America enjoy the stability of public works programs as both a means of employment and the efficiency that New Deal dams, roads, and parks give to their lives. Senate Minority leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas jokes with President Hoover at the Inaugural Ball, “Mr. President, you don’t understand how unfair your being towards the Democrats! You are the first president in history to have both poverty and wealth going for you!” This balance of power between the haves and have-nots is not to last.

Event Date: 4-10-1929Event Description: President Hoover appoints Secretary of Commerce Roy Chapin, a former automotive executive, to head up an investigation of Wall Street. He and a six man panel of union, business, legal, and political leaders are instructed to investigate any and all illegal activists on Wall Street, as well as any possible threats to the nation’s economic security that questionable Wall Street business tactics might cause. The findings of the Chapin Committee will rock the economic foundations of the United States.

Event Date: 4-15-1929Event Description: In what could be seen as a remembrance of Abraham Lincoln’s death, Senator Burton Wheeler (Democrat of Montana) has the honor of submitting the most progressive of all of the Hoover Administration’s reforms: The Voting Rights Act of 1929. This comprehensive voting act outlaws the poll tax, literacy tests, and the grandfather clause.

Event Date: 4-20-1929Event Description: The Voting Rights Act passes the Senate Committee on Internal Improvements. No one was quite sure what to submit such a bill under. Senate Minority Leader Joseph Robinson declares that he will lead the fight against this act. “Not since the days of the Civil War has such an infringement on the rights of the state’s been inflicted on our nation” Robinson declares on the floor of the Senate.

Event Date: 4-22-1929Event Description: Tennessee Senator Kenneth McKeller and Arkansas Senator Thad Caraway begin the expected Democratic filibuster of the Voting Rights Act. The selection of two rather quiet and unknown Senators to lead a filibuster surprises the beltway press. The Republican Washington Post declares, “The Democrats know that they can’t stop this act, so they have decided to offer the opposition two Lilliputian leaders.” However, the eloquence of Senator McKeller amazes even the most hardboiled of reporters. “We do not oppose this because of personal racial bigotries,” Senator McKeller declares, “Our side opposes this act because it infringes on the rights of our sovereign states. The fine line between the rights of states and the affairs of the federal government must not be crossed. Once the line is erased, anarchy is not far away, gentlemen.”

Event Date: 4-23-1929Event Description: After a 22-hour duo filibuster, Senators McKeller and Caraway relinquish the floor. Senate Majority Leader Charles Curtis, a firm supporter of the Voting Rights Act, takes the floor. “Gentlemen,” Senator Curtis declares, “I wish to speak to you today not as a Republican or as a man of minority heritage, but as an American voter. This right, the vote, is what gives our republic its meaning. The right to a fair and free election, universal suffrage, is the only thing which separates our republic from the failed republics of Cromwell’s England and Caesar’s Rome.” Curtis then uses a famous quotation, but in an ironic way, “Our government enjoys throwing around the words of Jefferson, ‘All men are created equal.’ We know that is not true. Some are born more wealthy, talented, or intelligent than other men. Some men are born Rockefellers and Carnegies while others are born in tenements and rural shacks. Only one thing makes the men and women of this nation equal: the vote. In the act of casting a ballot and putting it into the ballot box, the Rockefeller is the same as the poor farmer, and the president is the same as the corner shoe shiner.” After delivering a twenty minute address, the usually cold and colorless Senator Curtis ends his speech by simply declaring, “I beg you, vote for this act. Please, remember our republic.”

Event Date: 4-25-1929Event Description: With the Congress wanting to go on recess for a short holiday, the vote is taken for the Voting Rights Act. This idea appears to be too progressive, even for the Republican controlled U.S. senate to pass. With several Western Republicans voting with the Democratic minority, the act narrowly fails. President Hoover has faced his first real legislative setback since the failure of the Interstate Highway Act. Unbeknownst to him or any of the political leadership of the day, there was still a long way for the Hoover Administration to fall.

« Last Edit: September 25, 2007, 09:29:16 pm by PBrunsel »

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"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 5-01-1929Event Description: President Herbert Hoover commemorates May Day by refusing to diplomatically recognize the Soviet Union for a third time in his presidency. “The United States,” Hoover tells the nation in a radio address, “Refuses to recognize any nation, state, or entity which refuses to recognize the individuality and freedoms of mankind. No state which espouses Marxism will be recognized by my government, and no other government should recognize that state which does not believe in the worth of the individual human being.”

Event Date: 9-13-1929Event Description: The Chapin Committee testifies before the House Commerce Committee. Secretary of Commerce Roy Chapin tells the committee that all is not well on Wall Street. Secretary Chapin, former Senator Ralph H. Cameron, and several other committee members inform the nation about insider trading, artificial boosting of stocks, and banks playing the stock market with their patrons’ savings. “If these dangers go unnoticed,” Chapin concludes, “Then a major economic disaster is not far off.”

Event Date: 9-21-1929Event Description: The House Commerce Committee approves of The Wall Street and Banking Reform Act. All the recommendations of the Chapin Committee are included into this act. The act will pass both houses of Congress with relative ease. Following the debacle of the Voting Rights Act, this victory is seen as especially sweet for the Hoover Administration.

Event Date: 10-29-1929Event Description: Due to the reforms under The Wall Street and Banking Reform Act, a major stock market crash is avoided. However, “Black Tuesday” is marked by several arrests by Treasury Department agents. The agents arrest several Wall Street brokers who have been continuing playing dangerous games on the Stock Market and, in some cases, importing illegal alcohol from Canada to make money on the side. One who is not arrested (but many in New York government felt he should be) was Joseph Patrick Kennedy, a big time Wall Street powerbroker. Kennedy cleaned up his act soon after the government passed the Wall Street reforms. “The power has shifted from Wall Street to Washington,” the elder Kennedy tells his protégé, 15-year old Joseph Kennedy, Jr., “And you Joe will lead this new Washington power struggle.” Joe’s wife wonders which “Joe” she thinks he was talking about.

Event Date: 10-30-1929Event Description: Wall Street goes mad today! In response to the “Black Tuesday” arrests, the values of many stocks depreciate. Though the fall is not enough to be considered a “crash” the market takes a considerable dive. Across the nation, citizens rush to their banks to withdraw enough money to make it through, what many see, the beginning of a new recession. In Bedford Falls, New York, newlyweds George and Mary Bailey are almost forced to hand out their honeymoon money to frightened investors at the Bailey Building and Loan. George reminds them that their money is safe under President Hoover’s new banking reforms, and the anxious people leave the old building. “Gee whiz,” George tells Mary, “Thank my guardian angel for President Hoover.” Despite the kind words of Mr. Bailey, the nation is heading into a recession.

« Last Edit: September 26, 2007, 08:21:17 am by PBrunsel »

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"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 4-25-1930Event Description: With one of the worst winters in recent memory over, the Hoover Administration now focuses on farm aid, for the recession and a massive “dust bowl” in the Great Plains have left many farmers broke. Ever since the 1860s, the massive cultivation of western land led to major erosion of soil. During the harsh winter the ground froze pausing the dust storms for the time being. President Hoover, always known for seizing the opportunity, uses this crucial time in early spring to introduce sweeping agricultural reform. The Federal Farm Board is established to try to stabilize declining crop prices. $200 million is allotted to be sent to farm originations nationwide. These organizations were expected to use this money to build storehouses for access grain or purchase the grain surplus. The Federal Farm Board is attacked by conservatives in both parties as, “A multi-million dollar handout.”

Event Date: 7-04-1930Event Description: “We are marching against unemployment!” declares Socialist Norman Thomas as 30,000 unemployed Americans from the Eastern United States march on Washington to demand relief. President Hoover, seeing the protesters camped out on The Mall, addresses the nation that night over the airwaves. “We must work our way out of the recession,” Hoover tells the nation, “No government intervention can lead to our recovery.” In response to Hoover’s comment about working out of the recession, humorist Will Rogers jokes, “Hoover didn’t tell us where we could find the work.”

Event Date: 9-19-1929Event Description: Bowing to public pressure to respond to the Recession of 1930, President Hoover unveils the Second New Deal. This massive relief includes expanded public works projects, financial security for the elderly, and, to appease conservatives, tax cuts for corporations. President Hoover, a firm disciple of the church of balanced budgets, realizes that if all these reforms pass in Congress, major military cuts will need to be made.

Event Date: 10-15-1929Event Description: The Senate passes several components of President Hoover’s Second New Deal. The public works programs and corporate tax cuts, submitted under the National Recovery Act, pass through the Senate with little opposition. Hoover’s financial security for the elderly package falls through, however. Senator Franklin Roosevelt of New York is able to derail Hoover’s plan to send all Americans ages 65 and older $150 a month with relative ease. Senator Roosevelt decries the plan as, “Socialist security.” Hoover’s Second New Deal has received its first major blow, but a majority of the President’s reform package has passed.

Event Date: 11-05-1930Event Description: Due to the failing economy and a lack of public trust in the Republican administration, the Democratic Party wins a landslide in the Congressional Midterm Elections. The Democrats win 11-seats in the Senate, amazing even the incoming Senate Majority Leader Joseph Robinson. The Democrats solidify their lead in the U.S. House, cementing the power of House Majority Leader John Garner over U.S. legislative policy. Among the new Democratic Representatives is Joseph P. Kennedy, Senior. Running as an anti-New Deal Democrat, Kennedy won an easy victory in his very Catholic and very anti-Hoover congressional district.

Event Date: 1-10-1931Event Description: The new Congress takes office. To the surprise of the Washington establishment, Senator Roosevelt is elected Senate Majority Whip. After stopping assured income for the elderly, fiscal conservatives in the Democratic Party are looking at the Junior Senator from New York as their candidate for President in 1932. However, most Americans still remember the infidelity of Roosevelt during the 1920s. It seems like the Senate is as far as Roosevelt will be going in the political world.

Event Date: 5-20-1931Event Description: The greatest program of the Second New Deal is begun today. A massive dam is begun on the Colorado River. This massive public works program will be named Hoover Dam, after the President who gave it the funds to be built.

Event Date: 9-08-1931Event Description: The conservative Democratic House of Representatives passes yet another tax cut for American businessmen. With the oil industry budding in Texas, Majority Leader Garner hopes to bring some government help to his own state, although he opposes such help everywhere else. President Hoover is now forced to cut military spending to try to balance the budget. This decision will prove to be a fateful one.

Event Date: 9-16-1931:Event Description: In response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, President Hoover and Secretary of State Henry Stimson declare the Hoover Doctrine. This doctrine declares that neither the United States nor any democracy will recognize any territory taken by one nation against the will of another nation. This doctrine means little coming from a president who is gutting the defense budget, but in the future it will have major effects on American foreign policy.

Event Date: 10-10-1931Event Description: Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh appeals to President Hoover not to cut air mail services and the United States Air Force. “We can not abandon the skies,” Lindbergh tells the House Budget Committee, “No matter what the costs.” President Hoover, usually known for his serious demeanor, quips to the press, “Airmen are grown boys, why can’t they just have one plane and lean to share it?” Hoover’s cuts will be added to the budget.

« Last Edit: September 27, 2007, 10:15:36 pm by PBrunsel »

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"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 6-27-1932Event Description: The Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, Illinois. Although the delegates are united in their opposition to the big spending ways of President Hoover, they are not so united in a presidential candidate. Currently, six candidates have emerged as “front-runners” for the nomination:1. House Majority Leader and 1928 Presidential nominee John Nance Garner (TX)2. Senate Majority Whip Franklin D. Roosevelt (NY)3. Former Secretary of State Cordell Hull (TN)4. Senator William McAdoo (CA)5. Governor Alfred E. Smith (NY)6. Cleveland Mayor and former Secretary of War Newton Baker (OH)

The balloting of the first day proves to be of little importance. Garner dominates the first four ballots, but begins to dwindle by the 5th Ballot. Roosevelt, with solid support from New York’s delegation, is able to knock Governor Smith out of the running. William Randolph Hearst, the powerful newspaper editor, is behind Senator McAdoo. The only chance Roosevelt has to take the nomination is to persuade Hearst to join his side. The odds of that seem quite slim as the convention draws to a close.

Event Date: 6-28-1932Event Description: The Democratic Convention opens to a rousing address by Senator Alban Barkley of Kentucky slamming President Hoover’s economic policies as, “A coin with one side Socialist and the other side Republican. To be honest, I don’t know which side is worse.” Barkley ends the speech by declaring, “On Election Day, we’re gonna run Hoover’s gang outa town and make these Republicans like it.” The speech is so well received that many at the convention were expecting a delegate stampede to Barkley for President. However, the Kentucky Senator chooses not to accept a draft, he has his eyes on the spot of Senate Majority Leader. The Democrats adopt a platform extolling low taxes and fighting the recession, as well as denouncing the Hoover Administration. The balloting for president proves to be fruitless for the first several ballots. On the 17th Ballot, Newton baker decided to drop out and release his delegates to his old friend from the Cox Administration, Cordell Hull. Hull led for the next several ballots. McAdoo, bowing to reality, also ended his long shot campaign for the Oval Office. “It all comes down to the three real contenders,” a young radio announcer named Edward Murrow declared at the end of the day, “Tomorrow, the fate of a party, and unless a remarkable change occurs in our economic fortunes, of a nation, lies in the final ballot at this great battle of democracy known as the party convention.”

Event Date: 6-29-1932Event Description: Former Secretary of State Cordell Hull is nominated for President of the United States on the 21st Ballot. Governor James M. Curley of Massachusetts is selected for Vice-President. Despite his record as a felon and his heavy drinking, Curley is needed to keep union and Catholic support behind the Conservative southerner Hull. Senator Franklin Roosevelt and House Majority Leader John Garner seemed to have spent too much time attacking each other, and not enough focusing on Hull’s stealth campaign. The Democratic ticket of Hull-Curley is seen as a powerful one, especially against the Republicans in a time of economic peril.

Event Date: 7-16-1932Event Description: President Hoover’s hand picked successor is nominated by the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Senator Hiram Johnson of California, a strident New Deal Republican, is nominated on the 3rd Ballot, defeating the choice of conservative Republicans, former Senator Joseph France of Maryland. Senator Johnson is paired with Senate Minority leader Charles Curtis of Kansas. The selection of Senator Curtis, who has lost a great deal of his cockiness since the GOP election disaster in 1930, was made to appease conservative Republicans, but many of them upset over President Hoover’s liberal spending, have already changed allegiance to Cordell Hull’s campaign.

Event Date: 8-01-1932Event Description: Harry Truman, a former bank teller, bids for the First National Bank of Kansas City. Wanting to run a more legitimate business, Truman wins the bidding and becomes President of the bank. The first thing Truman does is register the bank once again with the National Banking Registry, an agency created by the Hoover Administration. Truman will perform his duties as President of the First National Bank with efficiency and gain the respect of the community.

Event Date: 11-08-1932Event Description: The Presidential Election proves to be an easy win for former Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The recession along with the presidential gridlock with Congress had eroded public support of the once popular Hoover Administration.

Hull’s win gives some coattails to the entire Democratic slate as well. The Democrats pick up three more Senate seats, whereas the GOP picks up only one. In the House, the Democrats lose several seats, but still narrowly control the chamber. President Hoover, listening to the results at his vacation home in Palo Alto, looks to his wife Lou and asks her one word, “Why?”

With a new president, will the nation continue in the tide of progressivism, or will President Hull take the nation down a path it could never have expected?

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"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

With a new president, will the nation continue in the tide of progressivism, or will President Hull take the nation down a path it could never have expected?

The last line of the last installment of the TL Intrigued me very much so. That leads me to my question. Will the Republicans become the liberal party and the Democrats the conservatives? Once again GREAT timeline PBrunsel, you have a good skill in writing "What-If" timelines.

Event Date: 3-04-1933Event Description: Cordell Hull takes office as President of the United States. Outgoing President Herbert Hoover returns to his home at Stanford University. To Hoover, it seems as if his progressive reforms have now ended.

Event Date: 4-30-1933Event Description: With the Democratic Party in firm control of the Congress, most of President Hoover’s New Deal initiatives are repealed by Representative Millard Tydings of Maryland and the Economic Reform Act of 1933. This act declares that in the fiscal year of 1934-1935, the military budget will be tripled and social welfare will return to pre-1930 levels. President Cordell Hull will sign this act, effectively ending the New Deal. “The New deal is dead,” former President Hoover writes in a letter to the editor for the Los Angeles Times, “I will lay flowers on its grave every day, for it was too far ahead of its time.”

Event Date: 5-04-1933Event Description: Representative Henry Rainey (Democrat of Illinois) and Senator Thomas Gore (Democrat of Oklahoma) introduce the Gore-Rainey Tariff. This act effectively repels the Smoot-Hawley Tariff and ushers in the lowest tariffs since President Wilson’s Administration. Economists expect this single act to greatly help the country climb out of the gripping recession that has haunted it since 1930.

Event Date: 7-01-1933Event Description: President Cordell Hull, an internationalist, recognizes the USSR. President Hull surprises the nation by nominating humanitarian and wife of Senator Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, to serve as the first ambassador to the Soviet Union. “By nominating a woman who stands firmly for the rights of men and women to live,” President Hull announces over the radio, “We can hope we show the Soviet’s the error of their ways.” In reality, President Hull wanted Eleanor out of the country because she was becoming a thorn in his side ever since he signed away Hoover’s New Deal.

Event Date: 7-21-1933Event Description: Secretary of State Thomas Bayard, Jr., and President Hull declare that under the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine, the League of Nations must intervene in the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. League of Nations General Secretary Joseph Avenol basically tells the duo that the League is powerless to do anything, and the United States will have to lead an attack on the Empire of the Rising Sun if it really wants to do anything about the Manchurian invasion. President Hull, knowing that the United States military is not powerful enough at the current time to declare war on the mighty Japanese Empire, decides that there is another way to enforce the wills of Hoover-Stimson and simultaneously increase American power in Europe.

Event Date: 10-31-1933Event Description: Ambassador Eleanor Roosevelt, Secretary of State Thomas Bayard, Jr., and Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov meet in Petrograd to discuss a military alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union. President Cordell Hull is greatly behind the meeting. Hull had sent a written message to Foreign Minister Litvinov months earlier; warning him of the dangers Japanese dominated Manchuria to the Soviet Union and to world peace in general. “The Emperor’s puppet state in Manchuria offers the greatest threat the USSR or the USA has faced in recent history,” Hull wrote, “The abundance of oil and workmen for the Japanese Empire means that the empire can successfully build its own army and lead it across the continent of Asia. The safety of the Soviet Union rests on nipping Japanese aggression in the bud.” No agreement is met, but Roosevelt, Bayard, and Litvinov all agree that Japan must be stopped, and if it takes war to achieve this goal, than so be it.

Event Date: 11-03-1933Event Description: President Hull ends all scrap metal and oil trade with Japan. “We can not in good faith towards the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine and towards our own morals as a liberty loving nation,” Hull declares in an address to a joint session of Congress, “Continue to fund a nation of aggressors.” Senator Arthur Vandenberg (Republican of Michigan) is appalled by this action. “President Hull is leading this nation down the road to war,” Vandenberg tells the Washington Post later that night, “He seems to have taken a leave of his senses, his actions are not apart of the course of action which a reasonable man would take.”

Event Date: 11-04-1933Event Description: The Japanese Ambassador to the United States along with his diplomatic team leaves the embassy on L Street in Washington, D.C. They leave a single note,

“To our American hosts,

We can not honor the will of the Emperor by staying in a nation which seeks to destroy our national safety and desires.”

President Hull tells Secretary of State Bayard and Secretary of Defense George Marshall in a private meeting in his personal chambers, “Boys, this means war.”

Event Date: 11-12-1933Event Description: Former Mexican Ambassador Dwight Morrow addresses the Republican Businessmen Convention in Detroit, Michigan. “Our nation can not afford a war with Japan,” Morrow tells the convention, “The loss of life and national treasure is too much for this nation to undertake. As for the personal reasons for opposition to war, I have just lost a grandson; I do not want other fathers and their wives to have to sacrifice their sons to the internationalist dreams of Cordell Hull.” Morrow’s reference to the kidnapping and death of his son-in-law’s, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, first born son hammers home his point to the nation. “It seems,” radio commentator Edward Murrow declares later that night, “President Hull’s path to war is being paved by him alone.”

Event Date: 11-15-1933Event Description: Claiming that he must defend American missionaries in Manchuria, President Hull and Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson authorize the U.S.S. Arizona to sail to Mukden, a city with several Western missionaries living in it. Senator Vandenberg and Representative Joseph P. Kennedy co-sponsor a resolution opposing this action, but it never even makes it out of committee. The Democratic Party is largely behind President Hull.

Event Date: 11-23-1933Event Description: The U.S.S. Arizona is attacked by Japanese artillery outside of Mukden, Manchuria. Though the Japanese government claims that U.S. marines were causing trouble in the marketplace earlier that day, and thus the attack was just retribution, President Hull doesn’t buy the story. The Japanese ran puppet state of Manchukuo (Manchuria in reality) releases a resolution condemning the United States for sending the U.S.S. Arizona at all. This is the breaking point of American-Japanese relations. It seems that war is all but inevitable.

Event Date: 11-24-1933Event Description: President Cordell Hull addresses a joint session of Congress. “The attacks of November 23rd, 1933, are ones which will ring through world history,” President Hull declares, “The stone aged barbarism of the Empire of Japan astound our peace loving republic. Their agents in Manchukuo, once the state of Manchuria, have attacked our peaceful force, sent only to protect the citizens of the West. Yesterday, the U.S.S. Arizona was suddenly attacked by the arsenal of oppression which the Japanese war machine controls with an iron fist.” After listing Japanese atrocities against the citizens of Manchuria, Hull asks the Congress to declare war. Both houses do not question the validity of the attack on the U.S.S. Arizona. The Senate declares war, with only Senator Vandenberg and three others opposing. In the House, Representative Joseph P. Kennedy is unable to lead enough isolationists in opposing the declaration of war. The United States is now at war with the Empire of Japan. “May God protect our nation,” former President Hoover tells his wife Lou at home in Stanford, “For the path ahead is one of great sacrifice and turmoil.”

« Last Edit: October 03, 2007, 09:27:00 pm by PBrunsel »

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"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 11-25-1933Event Description: The Empire of Japan declares war on the United States of America. Across America, patriotic young men sign up to serve their nation in its war against aggression. From Maine to California, boys who just celebrated Thanksgiving with their families were off to their nearest recruitment stations to sign up to serve Old Glory. In Boston, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., freshly out of Choate Rosemary Hall, a prestigious boarding school, signs up to join the navy as an aviator. His father, Representative Joseph Kennedy, Senior, urges his son to go to Harvard instead. However, “Joe Junior” can not be swayed. As he heads off to basic training, he kisses his mother Rose goodbye and tells his sickly brother John, known as Jack, “Now you behave yourself.” In Illinois, recent Eureka College graduate Ronald Reagan enlists, but is denied his wish to fight in the army. His eyesight phohibits him from fighting the battle. He is hired by WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa, to cover the war and report on Cubs games.

Event Date: 12-01-1933Event Description: The massive war machine of the United States begins to gear up. Factories closed by recession open up and begin hiring. Something odd, however, is the number of women and minorities taking up the jobs. With men going off to fight, women who were forced to go without during the recession are now demanding jobs. Saturday Evening Post artist Norman Rockwell immortalizes these new women workers as, “Rosie the Riveter.” The hard work and determination which these women and Latino, African, and Asian-American workers show will lead to major civil and worker’s rights reforms as the war progresses.

Event Date: 12-12-1933Event Description: Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur resigns his post to serve a Commanding General of the Armies of the United States in the Pacific (MacArthur himself requested such a long, grandiose title). President Hull, never a fan of the flashy MacArthur (whom he refers to in his journal as, “Mr. Prim Madonna” and “Brass Hat”), is uneasy about this appointment, but he was forced into it by conservative elements in Congress. To his joy, however, President Hull is able to appoint Secretary of War George Marshall as the new Army Chief of Staff.

Event Date: 12-26-1933Event Description: On the day after Christmas, the current standing army of the United States begins its deployment to Manchuria. “The war we fight today,” President Hull tells a group of soldiers be deployed, “Is one that will define the rights of free nations forever.” In California, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., is beginning to learn the finer points of flying newly created B-24 airplanes. By March of 1934, he is expected to be flying air raids over Japanese camps in Manchuria.

Event Date: 1-01-1934Event Description: The first of the American boots step foot in China. They join up with Chinese General Yan Xishan and his Army of Northern China. The Chinese Army using rifles from the First Sino-Japanese War in the 1890s and sabers, welcome the more up to date American weapons, even if the troops are green and not use to the trials of fighting a war in Northern China. General MacArthur tells Chinese President Chiang Kai-Sheik in a telegraph to the capitol, “I will make of the Japanese the greatest slaughter in the history of warfare.”

Event Date: 1-10-1934Event Description: Emperor Hirohito, now facing a war with the United States, orders his generals to halt a planned invasion of Mongolia. With fresh American troops and supplies arriving in China everyday, the Japanese must now focus on destroying the small American navy and defending Manchuria, especially its' oil fields.

Event Date: 1-22-1934Event Description: The War Relocation Act is passed by the Congress. This act sends over 80,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps in Arizona, California, Washington, Alaska Territory, and parts of Canada. Despite the injustice of this act, a majority of Americans polled by Gallup support “Japanese internment.” As one city councilor from Boise, Idaho, put it, “To us, they are enemy civilians. We need to cart ‘em up, and ship ‘em out!” In 1935, the Supreme Court will rule that internment is constitutional.

Event Date: 3-05-1934Event Description: After months of drilling and fighting small skirmishes in Manchuria, General MacArthur begins leading a massive invasion force into Japanese controlled China. MacArthur’s plan focused around the idea that breaking the Japanese control in Northern China would lead to them withdrawing troops from Manchuria, thus leaving that theatre of the war less defended. This plan had been approved by President Hull with advice from Secretary of War William McAdoo (who was not a veteran), but he felt it was a fool hearty excursion by the, “pompous little general.”

Event Date: 3-30-1934Event Description: After winning several small skirmishes against smaller Japanese forces, the invasion force of American troops face off against the bulk of the Japanese 8th Division at The Second Battle of Rehe. Better trained Japanese troops, benefiting from barricades and entrenchments from the battle fought back in March 1933, are able to hold off the superior numbers of the opposing army. General MacArthur is quite stunned by the rebuff of his army. The losses for the Americans are 3,210 dead. The Chinese, who were forced to bare the losses of the first charge, lost more than 10,000 men, with countless wounded.

Event Date: 4-01-1934Event Description: “March 4th, 1934,” WOC radio newman Ronald Reagan tells his listeners from South Dakota to Indiana, “A date which will live in infamy. The Army of the United States of America, defeated by the Japanese aggressors, something no freedom loving American can comprehend. However, the fight goes on. This one defeat will not define this war against an evil empire.” Although the soothing, star spangled oratory of Reagan seem quite hopeful, the news of the first major battle of the American-Japanese War finally arrives in the United States, and it is a defeat for the United States Armed Forces. General MacArthur tries to reassure the nation by declaring, “Once the disastrous spending decisions of the previous administration are corrected, our troops will have the tools they need to defeat the aggressor.”

Event Date: 4-05-1934Event Description: The defeat at the Second Battle of Rehe seems to have been an even worse defeat for President Hull’s plans for the United States and the Soviet Union. Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov tells Ambassador Roosevelt that his nation can not ally itself with a losing power. “Our nation can not lose another war,” he tells her in a translated telegraph, “Its effect on socialism would be too great.” President Hull needs a victory, but with the army entrenched outside the Great Wall, it seems like that is a remote possibility.

Event Date: 4-12-1934Event Description: Helping to cheer up an otherwise grim U.S. populace, cartoonist Jack Kinney releases the Walt Disney cartoon “The Emperor’s Face”. In it, Mickey Mouse is portrayed as a Japanese citizen, working at a munitions factory. Whenever a picture of Emperor Hirohito is shown to him, he must bow down (always in an exaggerated way). Mickey discovers what it is like to live in a totalitarian state and in the end wakes up from this terrible nightmare. His ending words, as he hugs a small Statue of Liberty, are, “Gee whiz! Am I glad to be an American citizen or what?” To add to the cartoon, famed songwriter Irving Berlin writes a catchy tune to go with the cartoon entitled “The Emperor's Face”. The song has some racist overtones to it (such as Japanese people speaking broken English and saying all w's as r's), but such things are not complained about in 1934. More importantly, the cartoon makes Americans laugh, show patriotism, and, most importantly, buy War and Freedom Bonds to help finance the war.

Event Date: 4-25-1934Event Description: General MacArthur’s forces have successfully made it back to American camp in Manchuria, but the retreat was a cold, difficult one. MacArthur, waiting for new recruits and supplies, begins to formulate a new battle plan with his Chinese comrades-in-arms. It will involve both onslaught by land, and a strange alliance with anti-Japanese gangsters and smugglers throughout Northern China. The army would take on a Japanese strong hold, but it would have the element of surprise. However, if his plan worked, the war would be salvaged and the battle for freedom in Manchuria could be won. “Only time will tell,” MacArthur wrote President Hull from an American camp, “What God has in store for us. I will pray it for the best.”

« Last Edit: October 04, 2007, 04:54:06 pm by PBrunsel »

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"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 5-05-1934Event Description: The Japanese stronghold of Mukden, Manchuria, is infiltrated…but not by U.S. troops. The beautiful mistress of one of China’s peasant gangsters is employed by General MacArthur to achieve military secrets about the defense of Murkden. “I hate to get down into the gutter with this type of trash, “ MacArthur writes to his friend FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, “But to win a war against these odds, I’ll take anything.” The girl comes through, however. The Japanese Commander at Mukden, as well as the Governor of the city, Kenji Doihara does some “pillow talk” with the young woman, and reveals that the city will be weakened on June 1st, 1934. The reason for this, as the attractive spy would tell General MacArthur, was that great deals of the troops were heading home or being sent to defend the Great Wall. After Japans’ victory over the allied American-Chinese Army at the Second Battle of Rehe, the Emperor and his generals have grown overconfident.

Event Date: 5-20-1934Event Description: The 2nd U.S. Airborne division arrives at American camp in Manchuria. Amongst the new arrivals is Joe Kennedy. No longer going by Joseph Kennedy, Jr., Joe Kennedy was commended for excellence in piloting and for his quick leaning during his basic training. With air force legend James Doolittle commanding American Air Forces, General MacArthur can count on crucial air support for the attack on Mukden: June 1st, 1934, D-Day.

Event Date: 6-01-1934120,000 U.S. ground forces as well as 500 U.S. bombers attack the Japanese stronghold of Mukden. With aid from 300,000 Chinese troops (equipped with modern American rifles) heading up the first charge against the town’s breastworks, General MacArthur’s and Colonel Doolittle’s risky attack is successful. The Japanese are chased not only from Mukden, but to southern Manchuria. Japanese soldiers on transports to the home islands are turned around in mid-ocean by decree of the Emperor. This defeat is something the Japanese did not anticipate. Despite the loss of 20,000 American troops and far more Chinese, General MacArthur can declare a victory, the first of the war for the American forces.

Event Date: 6-02-1934Event Description: “The forces of freedom have prevailed!” a jubilant Ronald Reagan declares over the airwaves of WOC Radio, “The aggressor, the tyrant, and the forces of evil in the modern world are silenced by the might force of the American and Chinese Armies.” The successful capture of Mukden has renewed American confidence in the war against Japan. President Hull and Secretary of State Bayard once again open communications with Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov. Ambassador Eleanor Roosevelt, following a meeting with Litvinov later that day, can inform President Hull that, “The attitude of the minister seem to have changed quite a lot.”

Event Date: 7-04-1934Event Description: Constitution Hall holds a “Why We Fight” rally, featuring such stars as comedians Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, Broadway actors and newlyweds Bob Hope and Dolores Reed, singers Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, child star Shirley Temple, and representing the Midwest, WOC radio personality Ronald Reagan. Reagan, previously unknown outside the Midwest, makes quite a splash onto the national stage. His rousing Fourth of July address, riddled with typical Reagan star spangled optimism, is met with thunderous applause from the Washington aristocrats attending the gala. Reagan is offered a position as a radio announcer by NBC radio, hoping to use the young and charismatic Reagan to counter the popularity of CBS’ Edward R. Murrow. Reagan accepts this offer, and is off to New York City to work for CBS.

One thing that this celebration of freedom does not have is any African-American entertainers. Opera singer Marion Anderson had wanted to perform at the Constitution Hall event, but the segregation laws of the nation’s capitol had stopped her. In response to this injustice, former President Herbert Hoover and First Lady Lou Hoover arrange for another concert to take part in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Marian Anderson, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and other African-American performers sing odes to the, “sweet land of liberty.” Former President Hoover makes the highlight address of the night. “If we are to win this war against oppression and aggression,” Hoover tells a primarily African-American audience, “The United States must defend the equality of all its citizens.” Despite Hoover’s uncommon eloquence, his speech will have no effect on a Congress and White House controlled by Conservative Southern Democrats.

Event Date: 7-12-1934Event Description: General MacArthur is able to claim another victory over the Japanese Army. The Battle of Shanhaiguan (a strategic pass that is known as “The Doorway of Manchuria”) results in victory for the American-Chinese forces. Despite the loss of over 6,000 troops, the fall of a strategic pass to a major oil field is a major setback for the Army of the Rising Sun. Superior American air power was key to victory. A hero of the battle is Airman Joe Kennedy, who was able to save his squadron from an ambush by Japanese fighter pilots. “That Kennedy boy has bright future in the air force,” Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle comments to an army newspaper.

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 7-16-1934Event Description: Emperor Hirohito replaces the inept Kenji Doihara as Military Governor of Manchuria. After ordering Doihara to, “do his duty”, with a Japanese saber, the Emperor selects to replace him with the Vice-Minister of War, Hideki Tojo. Known as a ruthless commander, the Emperor is putting his faith in Tojo to rebuff the American-Chinese armies and reestablish Japanese dominance in Manchuria. Tojo, considered a man of honor by his superiors and subordinates in the War Department, tells his Emperor through letter, “I will fulfill your wishes, or die.”

Event Date: 7-30-1934Event Description: Japanese Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto orders the most massive bombing of any city during the Japanese war with China. The Shanhaiguan Pass, in American hands since July 12th, is the target of “The Yamamoto Raid”, as NBC radio announcer Ronald Reagan described the bombings. This bombing raid is quite successful. The raid is able to throw the American forces into chaos. The Japanese begin moving troops from the Great Wall to the pass. Commander Tojo seems to be a far greater opponent than MacArthur had wagered.

Event Date: 8-01-1934Event Description: The Japanese attack on the Shanhaiguan Pass, boasting a force of over 200,000 troops, is able to take back a majority of the pass, but fails to take “the gate” of the pass. Colonel George Patton, a tough talking grandson of a Confederate Navy veteran, was able to keep his troops united enough to stop a total Japanese victory. The attacks of the last several days have gone to show MacArthur that victory over the Japanese will not be as quick as he was beginning to think.

Event Date: 8-15-1934Event Description: Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, a favorite of General MacArthur, arrives in Manchuria from training troops in the Philippines. MacArthur needs Eisenhower to command a tank core that will be needed when he attacks the Japanese forces in the Shanhaiguan Pass. Eisenhower, or “Ike” as his family calls him, accepts this command. He has just gotten done with training the Filipino Army, so he feels he can probably achieve anything.

Event Date: 8-17-1934Event Description: Admiral James Doolittle’s air force leads a massive bombing of Japanese forces in camp in the Shanhaiguan Pass. These raids are coupled with General Patton leading fresh U.S. troops against the Army of the Rising Sun. Through 22-hot hours of battle, the Americans not only win the day and chase off the Japanese Army, but manage to destroy their supply lines to the Great Wall.

Event Date: 8-18-1934Event Description: President Hull, in response to the American victory yesterday, once again tries to from a military alliance with the Soviet Union. Hull sees such an alliance as not only a strategic military agreement, but a real opening of foreign relations with the Soviets and the East in general. Foreign Minister Litvinov finally caves to the constant pressures by President Hull, Secretary Bayard, and Ambassador Roosevelt. The Alliance of Petrograd (where the military pact was signed) throws the USSR into the war against Japan. This alliance is met with disgust from General MacArthur, a well known anti-Communist, and he threatens to resign. President Hull seems all too happy to accept such a resignation, but MacArthur reconsiders this course of action. “The American Caesar” has a plan to once again attack the Japanese at the Great Wall of China.

Event Date: 9-15-1934Event Description: Former President Hoover arrives in Peking, China, as the head of the newly formed Committee to Relieve China (CRC). The news of starving children due to the war led Hoover back into the field of humanitarianism. Over the course of the war and its aftermath, Hoover will feed over one billion Chinese citizens.

Event Date: 9-21-1934Event Description: With the Japanese at bay on the Great Wall and the Russians defending a great deal of Northern China, General MacArthur leads another excursion out of Manchuria and back to the city of Niche. This second attack on the city is expected to be more successful than the first by American military experts, due to the fact that troops are now better trained and the equipment is more up to date.

Event Date: 10-31-1934Event Description: Commander Tojo orders what is known in America as “The Halloween Massacre.” Seeing American troops not far from Niche, he orders several thousand men to charge the line. This command is given three times, costing the Japanese well over 100,000 troops, but the Japanese troops die honorably for their Emperor. The vicious battle halts MacArthur’s advance outside of Niche. This latest setback is not looked upon favorably by the American people, voting in midterms in just two weeks.

Event Date: 11-03-1934Event Description: Disgust with setbacks in Japan, the American voters toss out five Democratic senators and 23 Congressmen in the 1934 Midterm Elections. Though the Democrats still control both chambers of Congress, their margins are greatly reduced. Senate Minority Leader Arthur Vandenberg declares that he will do all in his power to, “Change the course of the war in Asia.” In Massachusetts, Representative Joseph Kennedy, is elected Governor of Massachusetts, despite Vice-President James M. Curley attempting to destroy the campaign of his political rival by painting him as a pro-Japanese isolationist. Governor-elect Kennedy is once again eyeing the White House.

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Adolf Hitler is still Chancellor of Germany. President Hoover's plans for European war debt amnesty was not even allowed out of the Democratic controlled Senate Foreign Affairs Commitee. After the American-Japanese War, the Nazi leader will meet a far different fate.

MikeyMike,

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, Herbert Hoover always has a place in the White House under my timelines.

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 11-10-1934Event Description: The war against the Japanese comes to their home islands. Major Joe Kennedy leads one of Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle’s raids over Osaka and Yokasuka. These raids attack not only military installations, but also civilians in the major residential areas of the town. Senate Minority leader Vandenberg will attack President Hull for allowing, “Such brutal murder of noncombatants.” However, President Hull and Secretary of War McAdoo stand by this policy. Most importantly for the President, General MacArthur stands with him (a rare occurrence). “We can’t whip the Japs by playing softball,” MacArthur tells an army newspaper, “We’ve got to go after them where it hurts. If that is their family members, than so be it.”

Event Date: 11-15-1934Event Description: Combined forces of American, Chinese, and Soviet troops attack the Great Wall once again. The Third Battle of Rehe ends in victory for what is now called “The Allied Forces.” The Japanese are unable to hold back the onslaught of over 200,000 troops. The battle wages for over 18-hours, resulting in the loss of 21,500 American lives, making this battle one of the bloodiest in American history.

Event Date: 11-20-1934Event Description: General MacArthur arrives at the Great Wall of China, as does Chinese President Chiang Kai-Sheik. The picture of General MacArthur and President Kai-Sheik shaking hands in front of the Great Wall is one of the most memorable photographs of the war. General MacArthur plans to lead a portion of the Allied Army into Peking to begin the establishment of a base of command in the Chinese capitol.

Event Date: 11-23-1934Event Description: The Japanese Army begins a massive attack on the Northern Chinese fortress of Xuzhou. This fortress is located at the mouth of the Northern Canal of China. If Commander Tojo captured this fortress, he would control not only the Northern Canal of China, but the strategic Northern Chinese city of Taierzhuang. The battle, waged against Colonel Patton’s 3rd Tank Core and Major Eisenhower’s 2nd Core, is a draw. The Japanese are unable to capture the fortress, but begin a siege of it that will last for three months.

Event Date: 11-25-1934Event Description: A portion of the Soviet armed forces attack the Japanese encampments outside of Xuzhou Fortress. The battle is not a long one. The fortified Japanese troops are easily able to mow down the Soviet troops as they charge their breastworks. After the short battle, the Japanese Air Force begins a massive bombing of the fortress and the city of Taierzhuang. The raids will last for three days.

Event Date: 11-28-1934Event Description: The city of Taierzhuang is in rubble after three days of bombing raids from the Japanese Air Force. However, Colonel Patton’s command is still standing. “I will never surrender,” Patton wires General MacArthur in Peking.

Event Date: 12-05-1934Event Description: The California State Assembly ratifies the 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition of alcohol in the United States. With California, 3/4th of the states have ratified the amendment, and it enters the Constitution as law. It was seen by Americans if 18-35 year old men could fight and die in Northern China, then they should at least be able to drink alcohol. “If I’m going to die,” one private in Manchuria tells an army publication, “I should ay least be able to get drunk at least one time before.”

Event Date: 12-25-1934Event Description: Ronald Reagan of NCB Radio addresses the nation on Christmas Day, reminding the nation of the importance of total victory over the Japanese. “The real lessons of this war,” Reagan declares, “Can be summed up in the song ‘The Bells on Christmas Day’: Then rang the bells, more loud than deep, God is not dead nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail; the right prevails, for peace on Earth, goodwill towards men.’ May we remember upon this holy and sacred night that through defending what is right, we shall always have peace for the Earth? May I remind you that it is not when the forces of freedom are weak that dictators demand tribute; it is when they are weak that tyrants are tempted.” Reagan then ends his address with what will become his radio signoff, “Thank you, and God Bless America.”

Event Date: 1-01-1935Event Description: The New Year’s Day Bombings occur. The massive United States arsenal of bombs is unleashed on Osaka, Nagasaki, and Tokyo. The war against civilians has appalled a great deal of American citizens. Former President Hoover declares such acts, “A new age of barbarism.” Coming to the defense of President Hull is former President James M. Cox, who in a rare interview with the New York Times, will say, “Such war must be waged. You can’t win against an enemy like the Japanese unless you use all your weapons.”

Event Date: 1-10-1935Event Description: The Japanese Army stages a major bombing raid on Manila, The Philippines. The bombing raid, aimed at bringing war to America’s possessions, is a vicious one. Major Eisenhower is promoted, and if the Japanese siege of Taierzhuang ever ends, he will be sent back to the Philippines by General MacArthur to lead the defense of the Philippines.

Event Date: 2-12-1935Event Description: Colonel Patton leads a gallant charge against the Japanese entrenchments. His 2nd Tank Core (with great help from the air force, but don’t count on Patton admitting to that) does the impossible by breaking across their lines, and forcing them into a bloody defeat. The Americans lose 21,000 men, but the Japanese, refusing to surrender, lose almost their entire force. Some Japanese regiments suffer 100% casualties.

Event Date: 2-15-1935Event Description: “I will return,” is all that a teary eyed Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower can tell his loyal tank core as he leaves Taierzhuang, to lead the defense of the Philippines.

Event Date: 3-01-1935Event Description: The Japanese Navy begins “Operation Amoy”, the blockade of Northern China and “Operation Tanji” the blockade of the Philippines. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, and experienced naval veteran of World War I, tells the press, “The blockades will be ended by the superior fire power of the United States navy.” NBC’s Ronald Reagan is blunter, “After we get done with this Japanese navy, the new Japanese navy is going to need glass floors in order to see the old one.”

Event Date: 3-02-1935Event Description: In an attempt to change the course of the war in Northern China, Commander Tojo leads a reservist army of Japanese soldiers, as well as pro-Japanese Mongolians and Chinese mercenaries. This army defeats an army of Chinese riflemen as today, as they march to take the “Pearl of the North China”: Port Arthur.

Event Date: 3-05-1935Event Description: The Battle of Port Arthur is begins. The battle is raged by Japanese and pro-Japanese Mongolian forces against the Allied Forces (primarily Soviet and American, with many Chinese defending their capitol). This battle involves naval, air, and ground forces. Just like during the Russo-Japanese War in the early 1900s, this battle is pivotal over who will control the North China Sea. General MacArthur arrives at the scene from Peking to oversee what he calls, “The greatest battle until Armageddon.” The first day is a draw. Neither side is able to break the others lines, while the sea is held by Japan, the skies are undoubtedly American by nightfall.

Event Date: 3-06-1935Event Description: The second day of fighting at Port Arthur leads to a massive Japanese breakthrough in the Allied line. By recruiting young troops to fight “Kamikaze” skirmishes along the enemy line, the Japanese Army was able to weaken the Allied line enough to break it in three places. The night ends with a failed American night assault on the Japanese camp. It seems as if the Army of the Rising Sun will raise its flag over Port Arthur once again.

Event Date: 3-07-1935Event Description: With Admiral Doolittle’s air force once again saving the day, the Japanese are forced back out of Port Arthur for the first time since 1933. This victory for Allied Forces can be credited to both the bombing escapades of Doolittle and his “sidekick” Major Joe Kennedy, but also towards the exhausted Japanese troops, who gave more than their all the day before. Commander Tojo’s army limps out of Port Arthur to the Korean border. From there, he will have to plan a miraculous comeback.

Event Date: 4-10-1935Event Description: Governor Joseph Kennedy, Senior, of Massachusetts meets with Secretary of War William McAdoo at the War Department. “Joe,” Secretary McAdoo starts. “No,” Governor Kennedy interrupts, “’Joe’ is a far better man than I. I’m ‘Joseph’, Mr. Secretary.” After this small exchange, McAdoo tells Kennedy that he has selected his 20-year old son to test fly an experimental airplane in May 1935. Governor Kennedy tells him, “Under no circumstances.” This meeting ends this idea. McAdoo needs another, “Guinea pig.”

Event Date: 5-01-1935Event Description: The new B-24 Liberator is tested in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by 18-year old air force student George Gay, Jr. All seems to be going well, until the airplane hits its’ maximum speed. Once this speed is attained, the Liberator bursts into flames. The young pilot dies in the blast immediately. That night, Ronald Reagan consoles the nation and the pilot’s family by declaring in a memorable address, “We will never forget the moment he left us, to breach the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 5-04-1935Event Description: The Battle of the Yellow Sea is waged by the American and Japanese navy and air force. The massive sea battle ends in an American victory. This battle is a major blow to the Japanese blockade of Northern China. Emperor Hirohito begins to weigh his options. Perhaps peace is now needed?

Event Date: 6-12-1935Event Description: Commander Tojo is able to reverse the dreams of peace from the Emperor’s mind. Using Korean mercenaries as well as fresh Japanese troops, Tojo’s forces win a massive victory at the Battle of Jinahuo. This city, an oil hub, being held primarily by Soviet troops, falls after a 13-hour battle.

Event Date: 6-15-1935Event Description: The American Air Force begins a massive bombing raid on Jinahuo. The bombings are directed mainly towards the oil wells outside the city. These attacks are expected to stop the Japanese from reaping the benefits of their newly acquired oil fields. The raids are successful, greatly weakening the Japanese position around the city.

Event Date: 10-09-1935Event Description: After several months of general stalemate in Northern China, the Japanese attack Mukden, after it being out of their hands for over a year. This attack, led from Mongolia, is rebuffed by the Soviet troops guarding the outskirts of the town.

Event Date: 01-31-1936Event Description: The Congress passes the GI Bill. Under this act, all returning veterans of the American-Japanese War will be given several benefits, including extra loans for college education and starting businesses. President Hull, though a penny-pincher as president, refuses to veto such a popular bill. After all, it is an election year.

Event Date: 03-22-1936Event Description: The Allied Forces successfully retake the city of Jinahuo. The city had become a thorn in the side of the Japanese since bombing raids in June 1935 crippled the cities oil fields. Commander Tojo leaves the captured town in an airplane, while most of his army lies dead or is captured. For the Japanese, it seems as if the dreams of Asian domination are now a pipe dream.

Event Date: 6-15-1936Event Description: With victory over Japan at hand, the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, does not dare nominate any “rising stars” to oppose popular President Cordell Hull. On the 7th Ballot, former Vice-President Charles Dawes is nominated for President. Despite his reputation as a Nobel Prize recipient and World War I Colonel, he stands no chance against Hull. For Vice-President, freshman Republican Senator Lester Dickinson of Iowa is selected. Dawes-Dickinson, a low key Midwestern ticket, is just a sacrificial lamb ticket for President. So offended by this ticket, one MacArthur delegate from Michigan props a fake skeleton in front of the convention hall with a sign reading, “I have more pulse than the GOP ticket!”

Event Date: 8-10-1936Event Description: President Cordell Hull and Vice-President James Curley are renominated by acclamation by the Democratic National Convention, also in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Let us be united not just in victory,” President Hull tells the convention, “Let us be united for what comes after the peace. Let us seek a fair peace, a peace to stop all aggression, and protect all nations.”

Event Date: 9-19-1936Event Description: Ronald Reagan is named by NBC to serve as “The Voice of the Nation.” This honor means that Reagan will serve as head anchor of NBC Radio. Due to his eloquent defense of the war and his flawless coverage of the battles, Reagan truly deserves this honor.

Event Date: 11-03-1936Event Description: With the war in Asia going well and the recession over, President Cordell Hull is reelected easily over former Vice-President Charles Dawes.

The Democratic Party manages to gain three seats in the Senate, and five in the House. The Republican Party is not wiped out in Congressional elections, however. The Republicans manage to defeat two Senators and gain seven House seats. The election appears to be more a mandate for Hull’s War than for his party.

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862

Event Date: 12-04-1936Event Description: The Japanese Army begins “Operation Tsunami”. In a last ditch attempt to win the war, Commander Tojo throws his massive army, air force, and navy at the city of Jinahuo, a city that was recently recaptured by the Allies. The Third Battle of Jinahuo ends with the Allied Forces being chased out of the city in a bloody defeat. Admiral Yamamoto’s air force, newly equipped with more modern weaponry, best the American air force for the first time of the war. Complete disaster is headed off when Airman Second Class Harry Bailey, of Bedford Falls, New York, manages to shoot down a Japanese airplane as it aimed to drop bombs on a munitions storehouse. Had the Japanese pilot been able to blow up the storehouse, the Allies would have lost a great deal of men and all their extra ammunition. For this act, Harry Bailey receives the Congressional Medal of Honor after the war. However, it is important to note that if Harry’s older brother George had not pulled his then 6-year old brother from the ice in 1918; Harry would have died, thus not saving the day in 1936. It just goes to show you how one man’s life affects so many others, and when he is not there it could cause a great gap.

Event Date: 12-05-1936Event Description: General MacArthur wires the War Department, requesting reinforcements. The draft, which was reinstated in 1934 soon after the war began, is coming under fire by Senate Minority Leader Arthur Vandenberg and the war itself is being viewed as an endless (and to isolationists like Senator Vandenberg and Governor Kennedy pointless), so Secretary McAdoo has little he can do to help the troops in Manchuria but to send them words of encouragement and tell them that a new shipment of arms is due in a few days. General MacArthur, already upset with President Hull and Secretary McAdoo over what he views as mishandling the war, tells a Los Angeles Times, “The administration is in the pockets of Soviet interests.”

Event Date: 12-06-1936Event Description: As the Japanese Army marches from Jinahuo to lay siege to Port Arthur and begin bombings of Peking, General MacArthur begins a battle of news media with President Hull. General MacArthur’s “Soviet interests” statement to the LA Times enraged the White House so much, Vice-President Curley issued a retraction the next day to the Boston Globe, “The General’s statements are not just ridiculous, but dangerous in maintaining the American-Soviet alliance.” MacArthur reciprocates by telling the newly formed Army Times, “Curley knows about as much about warfare as he does about being an honest politician. He and Hull are more interested in fighting me than the enemy.”

Event Date: 12-07-1936Event Description: President Hull meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov in Bangor, Maine. Litvinov tells President Hull that General MacArthur is, “A dangerous man” who, “Is leading our forces to slaughter and defeat.” Hull, now wanting to fire the popular MacArthur, tells the Russian to, “Be calm with Doug. He’s not really been stable for a long time. It is a real shame we have to put loose cannons like him in key positions.” During the course of the meeting, Lieutenant Colonel George Patton’s tank core is able to halt the Japanese advance on Peking by destroying Chinese railways.

Event Date: 12-10-1936Event Description: As Peking is bombed, General MacArthur orders an attack on the Japanese position outside the city. General Omar Bradley leads the initial attack on the fortified position. After the attack is rebuffed, Bradley (who was promoted to general in 1935) wires Secretary McAdoo, “I fear MacArthur is unable to hold the line in North China. He seems to be in a panic.” This wire is intercepted by War Department Official Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy, a former Appleton, Wisconsin, law student, joined the War Department in 1935 after a tour of duty in Northern China. McCarthy never gives Secretary McAdoo the telegram. McCarthy is firmly behind General MacArthur, whom he has called, “The only man our country should trust.”

Event Date: 12-25-1936Event Description: On Christmas Day the counterstrike begins. General MacArthur, having regained his senses since the failed assault on the 10th, throws the mighty Allied air force at the Japanese, surprising them in an early morning assault. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Curtis LeMay (a favorite of MacArthur’s), the bombing raid is able to weaken the Japanese defenses enough to send them packing from Peking. This victory is, as MacArthur declares later that day, “A Christmas gift to the free peoples of the world.”

Event Date: 1-20-1937Event Description: President Cordell Hull becomes the first president sworn in on January 20th, as is prescribed under the 20th Amendment. President Hull calls for, “Complete victory over the forces of evil in our current crusade for freedom.” Hull, not known for brilliant public speeches, is overshadowed by Ronald Reagan of NBC who tells the nation that night, “Our greatest victory will not be over Japan. Our greatest victory will be when the tyrannies of Earth are not allowed to threaten the peace of the world, but our, instead, dispelled to the ash heap of history.”

Event Date: 1-29-1937Event Description: Colonel Joe Kennedy leads a bombing raid over Tokyo, with similar results to other raids: The Japanese simply run into underground bomb shelters, sit out the bombings, and resurface to put out the flames. Emperor Hirohito, now ruling from Kyoto, shows no signs of surrendering. “It appears,” CBS radio personality Edward R. Murrow says that night, “We can escalate and bomb as much as possible, but the enemy can escalate and bomb us just as much. They can meet us man for man, and in the end, we are back where we began: A stalemate, and a bloody one at that. Good night and good luck.” Murrow, once a supporter of the war, is attacked viciously by the American media. “CBS shows its true colors,” NBC’s Ronald Reagan comments during his nightly show “Voice of the Nation”, “Those, of course, are surrender white.”

Logged

"I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."-President Abraham Lincoln, December 1862